GOP Congressman Doug Lamborn Says Dealing W/President Obama "Like Touching A Tar Baby" [Video]

It's a term I haven't heard used in 30 closer to 40 years. It's use was derogatory. Paraphasing the parent and leaving out a few choice words 'I don't want kids playing with no tar babies' meaning I don't want the black to rub off.

A tar baby is a sticky situation that is best to be avoided.

A tar baby is a sticky situation that is best to be avoided.

Viners are implying racism. Nothing racist about that!! There could be another meaning. We must analyze the context in which the word was used.

What's a Bubba?

The faux ignorance is not endearing.

There's this thing on the internet called Google. Use it.

What's a Bubba?

bubba is a relationship nickname formed from brother and given to boys, especially eldest male siblings, to indicate their role in a family.

I have a role here in the Viner family.

If he had said the debt debate/situation is like a tar baby but he was referring to a person.

Kerry referring to a situation 1992: "Everybody on my staff, everybody I knew thought I was crazy, and said, 'Don't do this,' " he recalls. "They said it's a no-win tar baby."

Molly Ivins referring to a situation: "It now looks, with 20-20 hindsight, as though he should have taken a few more deep breaths before smacking that tar-baby that is Afghanistan."

Tony Snow referring to a situation: Having said that, I don't want to hug the tar baby of trying to comment on the program -- the alleged program -- the existence of which I can neither confirm nor deny.

If he had said the debt debate/situation is like a tar baby but he was referring to a person.

Exactly! Well said. There's a HUGE difference in the two meanings.

Great links, reddirthippy. Shows the difference admirably. :o)

I have a role here in the Viner family.

If your goal is to appear the elder voice of experience and better perspective, your insistence on meeting controversial topics with feigned ignorance defeats that purpose.

Follow the link I put up yet?

In poker parlance a pair of bubbas is a losing hand in the game of life.

feigned ignorance

Actually that is something of a compliment in this Bubba's case.

Exactly, Dean. Tar is black, so, therefore, they relate it to Obama's half black self. Ridiculous!

"Tar baby" as a derogatory term for a black person was around long before this sound bite.

Is Doug Lamborn the kind of politician we want in Congress making decisions for America?

Precisely. That is what Americans should be asking themselves.

When do they stop condoning inappropriate behaviour? Once someone is elected, he represents every single constituent in his district, not according to their colour.

From now on it is Doug "brother Rabbit" Lamborn

See comment #2.6 in answer to this!

Well there you go. By definition, obama can't be a tar baby. Not only is he not particularly dark skinned, but he is a mulatto, not a black. Learn the difference people.

You people are all the same, cry wolf whenever possible and politically convenient. You purposely choose to see this as a racist remark while ignoring it's both factually and contextually accurate. Try again race baiters.

Don't get mad at me, get mad at merriam webster.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tar+baby

Once again, the race baiters are crying wolf before gathering facts because it's politically advantageous to do so.

By definition, obama can't be a tar baby... You people are all the same, cry wolf whenever possible and politically convenient.

Sure, because no one has ever been called a slur that didn't explicitly apply to them. Straight people have never been called queers and if they were, it's obviously not meant as an insult. Non-Arabs have never been accused of being Muslim Terrorists, as never have anyone who was Arab but not Muslim. And certainly, no one has ever uttered and insult without knowing the exact, Webster's definition of the term.

I mean, if I were to call any one of the people coming to the Congressman's defense a pathetic, small-minded bigot, unless I'd personally seen this hypothetical good American in a KKK hood on their way to a lynching, there's no way that statement could be taken as an insult, right? Why, that's practically just calling someone "neighbor"!

Of course the other obvious answer is it wasn't meant or used as an insult but rather what the definition of the phrase has been shown to mean on mulitple links within this seed.

This is what I don't get about you people...if no link is given you want one, if one/multple are given you ignore it. that's called intellectual dishonesty.

certs: I'm not ignoring the link. It just doesn't reflect a colloquial, negative usage which is the basis of the objection and the one you are completely ignoring, for what reason I have no idea.

Links don't make you right. They support your argument or the don't. Your argument is that it shouldn't be taken in any other context because Webster's doesn't list another, commonly known one.

Others have used the term without referring to a person and managed not to raise ire. Other links, personal testimonies and quotes have been provided to demonstrate that the phrase has been used as a racial slur. The Congressman himself has admitted it was a poor choice of words.

Why won't you?

It's only a poor choice of words because as always, the race baiters that comprise the left come out of the woodwork whenever the opportunity arises if they think it harms their political opponent.

Race baiting is injecting race into a discussion where it doesn't belong. It's not questioning a racial slur directed at an individual (public figure or otherwise) as to whether it was intentional or not.

You've got nothing but a link to a definition already taken into account and a belly full of cognitive dissonance.

He said it was a poor choice of words because it was a poor choice of words.

PowerIsKnowledge:

Wikipedia said it's occasionally used as a slur. (And, frankly, that was added to the Wikipedia article after the congressman made his remarks.)

But the far more common meaning is the Uncle Remus story of Brer Rabbit, itself taken from older African folklore. And the context of the comment, including the words "you are stuck and you are part of the problem now, and you can't get away", clearly show that it was being used in that sense, and not in a derogatory sense.

If you'd been called a tar baby, or your parents had been called a tar baby, you should know already that when it's used as a slur "getting stuck" isn't ever involved. When it's used as a slur, skin color is all that's involved. That's why you have the derogatory expression "black as a tar baby".

The tar baby reference, as Lamborn used it, was not racist. Not even slightly. It wouldn't have even been controversial a few years ago before things got so highly polarized in politics. It correctly used the figure of the tar baby from Uncle Remus and from African folklore as a metaphor for a sticky situation best avoided.

Trying to cite this as racist when it's obviously not makes it less likely that the public will pay attention to us calling out the very real examples of the racism that does exist in the GOP.

Trying to cite this as racist when it's obviously not makes it less likely that the public will pay attention to us calling out the very real examples of the racism that does exist in the GOP and DNC.

Well said, and fixed.

certs:

Thank you for the compliment, but if you're going to "fix" my statement by simply tacking on "and DNC" you may want to cite some examples of racism from the DNC comparable to the examples of GOP racism I already linked to. Nor were these examples outliers, they're part of a large pattern on the part of the GOP in recent years. It's no accident that one of the top stories on newsvine currently is "FOX Continues Its Old 'Obama Is A Secret Muslim' Angle With False Reporting Over His Ramadan Statement".

Thank you for the compliment, but if you're going to "fix" my statement by simply tacking on "and DNC" you may want to cite some examples of racism from the DNC comparable to the examples of GOP racism I already linked to.

I'm glad you asked, please allow me to do so.

http://mywaybusiness.com/harry-reid-sorry-for-racist-remarks-about-president/522/

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2008/03/11/4432912-ferraro-vigorously-defends-remarks

http://www.frumforum.com/remembering-robert-byrds-racism

There you go. Next.

PowerIsKnowledge:

No, he used it as a metaphor. As the term has been used for decades in this country, and as it is most commonly used to this day.

Certs:

Congratulations, you did manage to find a few examples. I'd still say that, of the two, the GOP has a far more pervasive problem with racism. It's no coincidence that it embraced the Southern Strategy. In the words of Nixon's political strategist Kevin Phillips:

"From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats."

That's been the strategy the Republicans have embraced for the last 40 years. With obvious results.

PowerIsKnowledge:

Why are you so intent to tell us what Congressman Lamborn "really" meant?

I'm not telling you what you should feel, I'm simply telling you that you're wrong about how this word was used. If you want to feel offended, fine, but you're feeling offended without actual cause. Congressman Lamborn very clearly used the term in its metaphoric sense, referring to a situation where you get stuck and everything you try to do to get unstuck just makes you more stuck. There's nothing even remotely racist about that usage, and in fact that usage emerges from African folklore in the first place.

Saying that it is racist, on the basis that some people have used the term tar baby in a derogative fashion, is like saying that anyone ordering a brownie is racist because the term has been used to refer to people of mixed race. Context matters. In the context of Doug Lamborn's remarks, there was no racist content. He didn't refer to Obama as being "black as a tar baby", he didn't say that Obama himself is a tar baby, he said that dealing with Obama is like "touching a tar baby". He even went on to clarify that he meant when you deal with Obama "you are stuck and you are part of the problem now, and you can't get away", as was the case with Brer Rabbit (or, in the older African stories upon which it was based, Anansi) when he touched the tar baby in the story. What part of that is supposed to be racist, exactly?

That's been the strategy the Republicans have embraced for the last 40 years. With obvious results

We disagree on that..however, we might agree that the self proclaimed champion of the poor and minorities have done a @!$%#ty job helping them do anything except become more dependant on the government. Dependence translates into votes. That seems kind a racist thing to do, at least to me.

we might agree that the self proclaimed champion of the poor and minorities have done a @!$%#ty job helping them do anything except become more dependant on the government.

Funny, we seem to have gotten at least one of them elected president... not to mention 40 black democratic congressmen, to 1 black republican congressman. There's also the little fact that minorities are more likely than whites to start their own business in this country. Sure looks like we're putting systems in place that allow them to achieve things on their own, to me.

But really, if your argument is that welfare programs promote minority dependency on government, and are thus racist then I have to point out that the actual alternative to these welfare programs is a complete absence of social safety nets. Under that system, people literally starve on the streets if they can't find work. They suffer and die if they can't afford healthcare. Their kids are neglected if they can't afford childcare while they work. To suggest that we should do away with welfare and return to the eleemosynary system that existed before seems like a very racist thing to do, to me. As does the implication, whether it was intended or otherwise, that minorities are simply too lazy not to grow dependent on government while welfare programs are in place.

I'm surprised about people bending over backwards to ignore racially charged references /sarc.

A Fascistic Lie From Disloyal 'Citizens.'

I'm surprised at liberals whining about racism again where there is none.

Denial changes nothing. Contradict me if you wish. I stand by my words.

You can stand by your words all you like. Links have already been put up of what a tar baby is. It was used in the correct context and is not racist. It's not my fault if you people have been trained to cry wolf first and gather facts later.

O Really? Is That A Premise Or A Conclusion?

• If it is a conclusion, what premise(s) make it true?
• If it is a premise, why should I believe it?

Außerdem, warum hat er sich entschuldigen?

Feel free to educate yourself and check out any of the numerous links that clearly show you are incorrect. Remember, being incorrect doesn't mean you're stupid, it just means you're wrong this particular time. You're not a moron, you just don't understand this specific topic.

Perhaps I Prefer Logic To Links ...

Three cheers for Aristotle!

You're not a moron.

That is a blatant lie. LOL!

I'd tell you it's current meaning, but between you and Bubba I'm thinking it will soon be a synonym for "can't be bothered to Google".